Grooming aid

ABSTRACT

A plate having a guide edge and means for establishing the location of the guide edge in relationship to a fixed reference is provided for cutting sideburns.

United States Patent Jack W. Benjamin 257-27 149th Road, Rosedale, N.Y. 11422 Jan. 23, 1969 Oct. 19, 1971 Inventor Appl. No. Filed Patented GROOMING AID 3 Claims, 8 Drawing Figs.

US. Cl 132/45 Int. Cl A45d 24/36 Field of Search 132/45, 9,

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,936,767 5/1960 McDonough 132/45 3,209,755 10/1965 McCarthy et al. 128/348 3,491,450 1/1970 Ayoub .33/174 FOREIGN PATENTS 725,158 3/1955 Great Britain 132/45 208,016 3/1960 Austria 132/45 Primary Examiner-L0uis G Mancene Assistant Examiner-Gregory E. McNeil] Attorney-Leonard H. King ABSTRACT: A plate having a guide edge and means for establishing the location of the guide edge in relationship to a fixed reference is provided for cutting sideburns.

PATENTEDUBT 19 ran m. mr MW 1 FIG. 6

ATTOR/VEY GROOMING AID This invention relates generally to grooming aids and in particular to a grooming aid for establishing the length of a man s sideburns.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION I One of the difficulties men encounter in shaving is the accurate'shaping or terminating of their sideburns. It is a problem to make both sideburns match as far as their length is-concerned. When shaving one sideburn, the other sidebum is not visible so that the man must necessarily guess. Alternatively, he may use another portion of his face, for example, his ear, as a reference point. But this is not entirely satisfactory since for most individuals the ears are at slightly different heights. A difference in sidebum length is particularly accentuated for a man who wears glasses.

The present invention is clearly distinguishable over such devices as stencils, erasing shields, eyebrow penciling guides and the like wherein material is either added to or removed from an area that is bounded by the periphery of a cutout. Instead, according to the present invention a single reference edge of a plate member is used as a guide line for cutting the end of a sidebum with means being provided for accurately positioning the reference guide edge relative to a portion of the users head, namely, his ears. Further, both the structure and function of the present invention distinguishes over U.S. Pat. No. 3,407,823, issued to J. Selvaggio on Oct. 29, 1968. In

the issued patent no provision is made for accurately locating the device which is handheld in place.

Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a grooming device that will permit a man to shave both his sideburns to the same length.

It is another object of this invention'to provide a grooming device as described above that may be readily attached to and removed from a pair of eyeglasses.

It is another object of this invention to provide a grooming device as described above, the length of which device may be readily adjusted.

A further object of this device is to provide a low-cost grooming device as described above that may be manufactured by an extrusion process.

Still another object of this invention is to provide a grooming device as described above wherein the edge used as a cutting guide may be set at different angles.

A further object of this invention is to provide a grooming device as described above including a support and reference locating means whereby the device may be used without eyeglasses.

These and other objects, features and advantages of the invention will, in part, be pointed out with particularity and will, in part, become obvious from the more detailed description of the invention, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing which forms as integral part thereof.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING In the various figures of the drawing like reference characters designate like parts.

In the drawing:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view illustrating the mode of the use of one embodiment of this invention;

FIG. 2 is a sectional perspective view in elevation illustrating another embodiment of this invention;

FIG. 3 is a sectional perspective view in elevation illustrating a further embodiment of this invention;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view illustrating still another embodiment of this invention;

FIG. 5 is a sectional plan view taken along line 5-5 of FIG.

FIG. 6 is an elevational view illustrating still another embodiment of this invention;

FIG. 7 is'an elevational view illustrating a variation of the embodiment shown in FIG. 6; and

FIG. 8 is a perspective view illustrating means for using this invention without eyeglasses.

Turning now to the drawings there is shown in FIG. I a first embodiment of the present invention. The grooming device is comprised of a plate 10 having a lower edge 12 and a hook means 14 integral therewith. As may be seen in the drawing, the upper edge 14 may readily be hooked on to and be removed from the temple pieces T of an eyeglass frame F. It will 'be appreciated that when the plate I0 is positioned as shown, the edge 12 provides a line along which a man can trim his sideburns. The sideburns can therefore be trimmed accurately day after day since the position of the temple pieces of the eyeglasses does not vary with reference to the wearer's ears. It is contemplated that the present invention will be fabricated from a suitably rigid plastic material by means of an extrusion process. Therefore, the cost of the device should be very low since the only finishing operation required is to cut the device to the desired width.

In FIG. 2 and FIG. 3 there are shown two embodiments of the basic invention, which embodiments provide means for varying the position of the lower edge with respect to the temple pieces T. In FIG. 2, the plate 16 is once again provided with a lower reference edge 18. However, in this embodiment several hooklike portions 20, 22 and 24 are integrally extruded. Thus, the user may select the hooklike portion that suits his individual taste as regards the length of his sideburns. The device may therefore be positioned either higher or XXXXXXXXXXXlower with respect to the temple, pieces. Further, the user may by this invention change the length of his sideburns and be assured that, regardless of which length he chooses, his sideburns will always be equal.

FIG. 3 illustrates an alternate means for varying the position of the lower reference edge. Once again as in the previous embodiments, the plate 26 is provided with a bottom reference edge 28 and a hooklike top edge 30. In addition, during the molding process a plurality of grooves 32, 34 and 36 are provided in at least one surface of the plate 26. The user will establish the desired length of his sideburns and then cut the plate along the groove closest to the sideburn length by means of a sharp tool such as a knife. Alternatively lines can be imprinted on the plate member 26 to function in the same manner as the grooves. This embodiment of course limits the length of the sideburns to the length that is finally established by the cutting of the plate 26 along either the grooves or the lines whereas in the previous embodiment (FIG. 2) the position of the reference edge can be raised or lowered by the selection of the proper hooklike member.

FIGS. 4 and 5 illustrate an embodiment of this invention wherein the reference cutting edge may be varied other than by stepwise increments as described in connection with the previous embodiments. The plate 40 is once again provided with a lower reference cutting edge 42, a top, hooklike edge 44 and two spaced side edges 46 and 48 in the previous embodiments. It is contemplated that an extrusion process be used to fabricate the device in order to minimize costs. In addition, there is also provided a slide member 50 that includes an auxiliary bottom reference cutting edge 52 and two hooklike side edges 54 and 56. It is also contemplated that the slide will be manufactured by an extrusion process. The edges 54 and 56 of the slide member 50 provide means for its slidable mounting on the side edges 46 and 48 of the plate 40. There is a slight frictional fit between the two members 40 and 50 in order to permit the slide member to be moved up and down. Thus, the user has the choice of using edge 42 of the plate 40 or, if this is not at the desired location, the slide member 50 may be attached as shown and moved wither up or down to the desired location relative to the plate 40 so that the edge 52 becomes the reference cutting edge. It will be appreciated that this embodiment provides for an infinite variation whereas the embodiments shown in FIG. 2 and FIG. 3 provide for variation of the location of the cutting edge in fixed increments.

FIG. 6 and FIG. 7 illustrate embodiments of this invention that may be used to cut sideburns such that the bottom edge thereof is angled. In FIG. 6 it will be seen that plate 60 includes a hooklike top edge 62 and a bottom reference edge 64 that is at an acute angle to the top edge 62 and to the longitudinal axis of the temple piece T. It will be apparent that when this structure is hooked on to the temple pieces of an eyeglass frame the user can then cut his sideburns at an angle which is a current vogue. Of course, this embodiment is limited to but one angle and is also limited to one length of sideburn if means such as shown in FIG. 2 and FIG. 3 are not used to provide vertical adjustment. Moreover, while the structure shown in FIG. 6 does lend itself to extrusion the angle of the bottom edge must be provided for by a subsequent operation. However, this operation may be performed at the same time that the plate is cut to the desired width.

in FIG. 7 means are provided for permitting the user to select any one of a number of angles for the bottom edge of the device. Once again, a plate 66 is provided with a hooklike top edge 68. In addition, a plurality of lines 70, 72, 74 and 76 are scribed, imprinted, or otherwise suitably applied to either one or both surfaces of the plate 66. Thus, the user can cut the plate 66 along any of the lines that will provide the angle he desires. It will be appreciated that this embodiment can be extruded and only the side edges need to be cut to provide the desired width. The imprinting or scribing of the lines 70, 72, 74 and 76 at different acute angles with respect to the longitudinal axis of the temple piece T may be done at the same time that the device is cut to the desired width.

Referring now to FIG. 8, there is shown one means by which a person who does not wear glasses may use the present invention. A support member 80 is comprised of a strap 82 and the pair of side members 84 that terminate in downwardly turned ends 86. Plates 88 are integral with strap 82 and are provided with a reference cutting edge 90. The user puts on the support member 80 such that the strap 82 extends over the top of his head and the tumed-down ends 86 of the side members 84 hook onto the ears in much the same manner as a pair of glasses. It will be appreciated that the adjustability concept described in any of the embodiments shown in FIGS. 2-7 may be applied to the plates 88 of this embodiment. While this embodiment does not lend itself to extrusion, it may still be formed from a semirigid plastic by a relatively low-cost stamping operation.

It will be apparent from the foregoing that a relatively lowcost simple device has been provided for accurately establishing length of a mans sideburns. Various alternative embodiments have been described wherein the edge of the device used as a reference cutting guide can be varied both to provide different length sideburns, as well as different-angled sideburns. It will also be apparent that any of the embodiments described hereinabove may be combined. That is, the structure used to provide for an angled sideburn may be combined with the structure used to achieve different length sideburns. It will also be apparent that it is not necessary to have rightand left-hand grooming aids since the plate member may be applied to the temple pieces with the hook portion facing either in or out. Thus, only a single extrusion is required and two identical plate members may be used facing in opposite directions. Alternatively, a single plate member can be used provided it is successively placed on the two temple pieces but facing in opposite directions. It will also be apparent that if the user does not normally wear eyeglasses then a dummy pair of eyeglasses, for example, without lenses, may be used to support the grooming aid as described above.

There has been disclosed heretofore the best embodiments of the invention presently contemplated. It is to be understood that various changes and modifications may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention.

What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters is:

1. A one-piece, extruded plastic grooming aid for cutting sideburns, said grooming aid comprising:

a. a plate member;

b. a reference edge on said plate member for defining a guide along which the sideburns are adapted to be cut;

and c. locating means defined by a plurality of spaced-apart hook means extruded integrally with said plate member, a selected one of said hook means being adapted to be removably and self-supportingly placed on the temple piece of an eyeglass frame so that said reference edge is positioned coincidentally with the desired length of the sideburn without the assistance of the users hand, whereby said reference edge is in the same position relative to the users ear each time the eyeglass frame is worn.

2. The grooming aid in accordance with claim 1, further including at least one line forward on said plate member at an acute angle with respect to one of the side edges thereof whereby said plate member is adapted to be out along said line to define a reference edge at an acute angle to the axis of the temple piece when said out plate member is positioned on an eyeglass frame.

3. The grooming aid in accordance with claim I further including a plurality of lines formed on said plate member at different acute angles with respect to one of the side edges thereof whereby said plate member is adapted to be cut along said of said lines to define a reference edge at an acute angle to the axis of the temple piece when said cut plate member is positioned on an eyeglass frame. 

1. A one-piece, extruded plastic grooming aid for cutting sideburns, said grooming aid comprising: a. a plate member; b. a reference edge on said plate member for defining a guide along which the sideburns are adapted to be cut; and c. locating means defined by a plurality of spaced-apart hook means extruded integrally with said plate member, a selected one of said hook means being adapted to be removably and selfsupportingly placed on the temple piece of an eyeglass frame so that said reference edge is positioned coincidentally with the desired length of the sideburn without the assistance of the user''s hand, whereby said reference edge is in the same position relative to the user''s ear each time the eyeglass frame is worn.
 2. The grooming aid in accordance with claim 1, further including at least one line forward on said plate member at an acute angle with respect to one of the side edges thereof whereby said plate member is adapted to be cut along said line to define a reference edge at an acute angle to the axis of the temple piece when said cut plate member is positioned on an eyeglass frame.
 3. The grooming aid in accordance with claim 1 further including a plurality of lines formed on said plate member at different acute angles with respect to one of the side edges thereof whereby said plate member is adapted to be cut along said of said lines to define a reference edge at an acute angle to the axis of the temple piece when said cut plate member is positioned on an eyeglass frame. 